LG's 84LM960V set will be available in ten flagship stores across the UK and Ireland by Christmas - including John Lewis Sloane Square, Bentalls Kingston, and Richer Sounds Southampton - with a further retail roll-out in the New Year. But the £22,499.99 price tag means it will only really appeal to the wealthier adopters.

"We are proud to be the first to offer UK consumers Ultra High Definition technology for their homes, with our 84-inch LM960V that is as impressive in functionality as it is in size," Stephen Gater, LG's consumer marketing director, said in a statement.

"It wowed the audiences at IFA, and representing every advanced technology that we are proud to offer as a TV manufacturer, we are confident that it will capture the imagination of the UK public as they get to see it up close for the first time."

The LG set uses the Triple XD Engine to boost the resolution of standard television pictures, while content from external sources such as hard drives and websites can be rendered in high detail.

But as with the initial introduction of 3D TV sets last year, the problem facing consumers who do take the plunge with 4K will be finding native TV content that they can actually watch.

However, it required a bespoke 85-inch 8K television set to show the action, delivering the equivalent of about 32 megapixels per frame at a screen resolution of 7680x4320. The system also used a 22 multichannel rig for the audio, helping to create the illusion of being right in the action.

By contrast, LG's Ultra HD TV also features a 2.2 Speaker System consisting of two 10W speakers and two 15W woofers, which reinforce the sound to bring the cinema experience home.

Alongside ultra definition, the set supports 'passive' Cinema 3D and comes with a range of smart features, such as LG's Magic Remote and web-connected Smart TV ecosystem, offering 1,400 different apps and other content.

NHK hopes to have Super Hi-Vision in homes in Japan by 2020, and so there will be an acceleration in development of 4K and 8K technology over the next decade to bring the costs down.

In the meantime, well-heeled customers can use LG UD TV to upscale their videos and other selected content to dizzying resolutions.